226 MEXICO. 
sprinkle with their blond, and a human pair should spring from it to re- 
generate the species. 
Xolotl, one of the heroes, departed on the dangerous errand, and 
having obtained the gift from the infernal deity, hastened off precipitately 
in fear that he might repent the present. So rapidly did he return to 
earth, that in his speed he accidentally fell and Iroke the lone! Never- 
theless, he returned to his brothers with the fragments, and, placing them 
in a vessel, sprinkled the precious relics with blood drawn from their 
bodies. On the fourth day there appeared a boy ; and, after a lapse of 
three days more — during which the bloody sprinklings were continued — 
a girl was formed. They were reared by their guardian Xolotl with the 
milk of thistles — and thus commenced the regeneration of the world! 
But there was no Sun nor Moon ! The luminaries that existed in for- 
mer days had been extinguished in the general ruin. 
The heroic brothers, therefore, assembled on the plain of Teotihuacan. 
They built a huge pile, and, kindling it, declared that the first who threw 
himself into the flames should have the glory to be transformed into a 
Sun. Nanahuatzin, the boldest of the multitude, immediately leaped into 
the blaze and descended to hell. After a short period, the Sun rose in 
the east ! 
But scarcely had he appeared above the horizon when he stopped in 
his course. They sent a message to the Orb desiring him to continue his 
travels, but he politely declined doing so until he should see them all put 
to death! 
This, as may well be imagined, was anything but agreeable to the 
band of sixteen hundred, and not a few undertook to manifest their dis- 
pleasure very openly. One seized his bow and shot an arrow, which the 
Sun safely avoided by dodging! Another made an equally passionate 
and fruhless demonstration ; and, so on with several, until the luminary, 
tired of the sport, and somewhat annoyed, flung back one of the arrows, 
and fixed it in the forehead of the first hero who had rashly aimed at his 
blazing disc. 
The heroic brothers, intimidated by the fate of their companion, and 
unable to cope with the Orb, resolved to yield to his behests ^nd to die by 
the hands of the daring Xolotl ; who, after slaying all his relatives, com- 
mitted suicide. Before the heroes perished, they bequeathed their clothes 
to their servants ; and, even at the period of the conquest, many ^'■ancient 
garments^'' were preserved by the Mexicans with singular veneration, un- 
der the belief that they were the dying gifts of the valiant heroes, who 
had restored the lost Sun for the comfort of their race. 
A similar fable is told of the origin of the Moon. Before the final sac- 
rifice of the 1600, another person of the same assemblage followed the 
example of his brother Nanahuatzin, and threw himself into the flames. 
But the strength of the fire had declined, and as the voluntary victim 
burned with a paler flame, he was glorified only by the humbler dignity 
of a Moonship ! i 
